Anyone used GPU accelerated transcoding programs?

[badass]

I need to encode video in H.264/AVC in either 576p, 720p or 1080p with AAC or AC3 audio.
I have an ATI Radeon 4870 and would like to use that to accelerate transcoding.
I know that Mediaespresso and Arcsoft Mediaconverter 7 can both use the GPU but they seem biased towards encoding for mobile devices. Their site doesn't go nito much detail about the encoding formats.
Can they encode in the above formats and does using the GPU make transcoding much faster than a Q6600?
If not, is there anything else out there? Is there anything freeware that uses the GPU?
I know the Catalyst control centre has a transcoder but it's completely useless. It can't read video in many formats, nor can it output in the desired formats.

[Funkstar]

Have you tried the trial version of MediaConverter?

[aidanjt]

I tried the one which came with the catalyst drivers, I could never get it to function sanely, and I've never tried badaboom. Don't particularly care either, while I'm sure badaboom would be quite fast, I have an i7 and multithreaded CPU encoding is pretty quick.

[g8ina]

I usually use Nero Vision for transcoding, and I believe it uses my nVidia GT420. Does a 1.5Hr AVI to dvd in about 40 minutes. Not tried it on HD stuff yet.

[badass]

Have you tried the trial version of MediaConverter?

Not yet. I have downloaded trials of both but would rather not bother even installing either if they definitely can't do what I want.

[badass]

Neither commercial program seems much faster using the GPU to encode having used both trials and they are both limited on what containers they can encode into.
I need to use .ps, .ts or .m2ts and neither program supports any of those containers.
I've been playing around with mediacoder2011 which is free but doesn't use GPU accelerated encoding on ATI GPU's.
Looks like I'll stick to using VLC TBH.

[chrestomanci]

Neither commercial program seems much faster using the GPU to encode having used both trials and they are both limited on what containers they can encode into.
I need to use .ps, .ts or .m2ts and neither program supports any of those containers.
I've been playing around with mediacoder2011 which is free but doesn't use GPU accelerated encoding on ATI GPU's.
Looks like I'll stick to using VLC TBH.

It is easy enough to change the container format after the transcode, at virtualy zero CPU cycles.

ffmpeg -i input_file.avi -acodec copy -vcodec copy -f matroska output_file.mkv

I don't know the equivalent command line for VLC of the top of my head, but it should be fairly easy to look up, and just as simple.

A more fundamental problem with the GPU based transcoders is that you get no control over the settings. They tend to have a fixed configuration for iPhone optimised settings or suchlike, and if you want to change something, even as simple as the bitrate then you are out of luck.

The other problem is that they are all windows specific, and GUI only, when I need something that is scriptable from a linux command line.

[Terbinator]

What about a trial of Adobe Premiere Pro ?

[Domestic_Ginger]

DVDfab; I think the new beta is using stream.

Really liked the earlier version.

[badass]

It is easy enough to change the container format after the transcode, at virtualy zero CPU cycles.

ffmpeg -i input_file.avi -acodec copy -vcodec copy -f matroska output_file.mkv

I don't know the equivalent command line for VLC of the top of my head, but it should be fairly easy to look up, and just as simple.

A more fundamental problem with the GPU based transcoders is that you get no control over the settings. They tend to have a fixed configuration for iPhone optimised settings or suchlike, and if you want to change something, even as simple as the bitrate then you are out of luck.

The other problem is that they are all windows specific, and GUI only, when I need something that is scriptable from a linux command line.

Thanks, I'll look into that instead.

What about a trial of Adobe Premiere Pro ?

Look like it's over £100 for the full version which is more than I want to pay for transcoding videos.

DVDfab; I think the new beta is using stream.

Really liked the earlier version.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll keep my eye on their site.